Speaking of stored procedures . . .

I've been asked to research two SQL issues, as time permits, over the next day and a half. I barely know where to start on one of them, and I haven't a clue where to start on the second.

1. I've been asked to find out all I can about how stored procedures work on midrange systems, and what they can do. And in particular, I've been asked how they relate to triggers and constraints. Any suggestions would be good, before I just blindly search for "sql stored procedure" on GOOGLE, in the DisInfoCenter, and in the Softcopy CD.

2. We are contemplating a fairly extensive redesign of our major client-server application. We use a proprietary server and communication protocol, and our server has exit-hooks that allow us to censor lists, and block user actions, in order to enforce the customer's business rules, as well as automatically propagate data into any "native system" we're asked to tie into. There has been some talk of scrapping this proprietary server strategy in favor of having the client access the database through JDBC. But the question is, were we to do that, would we be able to conveniently do everything we can currently do through exit programs?

I'd already be doing searches myself by now, except that I need to get that "child-server-job-killer" up and running right now. Any head-start I can get on the research would be greatly appreciated.

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JHHL